In recent years, the popularity and commercial success of solid fuel burning stoves, fireplace inserts, furnaces and the like has been most surprising. Many factors have contributed to this commercial success and acceptance. Perhaps foremost has been the ever increasing cost of conventional forms of energy used in heating, that is petroleum fuels and electricity. Secondly, stoves and fireplace inserts have been greatly improved in design from an energy viewpoint compared to preexisting stoves and fireplace inserts. Stoves and fireplace inserts commerically available today are very efficient, and are in fact designed such that the heat output can be easily controlled. Thirdly, many people have ready access to wood, and even if they don't, wood can be purchased at a competitive price with respect to conventional forms of energy.
Aside from stoves and fireplace inserts, fireplaces continue to be very popular among people, especially because of the aesthetic value received therefrom. The use of heat exchangers within the fireplace has greatly increased the efficiency of what use to be a very poor and inefficient approach to heating.
To gain the aesthetic values of a fireplace, but yet not be bothered with the trouble and inconvenience of maintaining a wood fire, many people have opted to use gas logs within their fireplace. For the most part, this gives the desired aesthetic value. But as with conventional fireplaces, the heating is very inefficient. In the case of gas logs, the heat produced from the gas logs tends to remain static and stationary about the fireplace, and does not tend to move in such a way as to evenly distribute the heat within the structure.
Therefore, there is a need for a heat exchanger or apparatus that is designed and adapted to be used in connection with gas logs for efficiently capturing and distributing the heat produced thereby within an associated structure.